Administration, Customer Service & Hospitality

Executive Assistant Job Description

An Executive Assistant protects an executive’s attention and commitments by coordinating priorities, decisions, information, meetings, travel, and confidential follow-through.

Define supported leaders, time zones, decision authority, travel, board exposure, out-of-hours needs, and administrative support.

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Replace bracketed details, remove anything that is not genuinely required, and obtain the appropriate internal approval before advertising.

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Executive Assistant

Location
[Location or working arrangement]
Employment type
[Full-time or part-time]
Reports to
[Named executive or Chief of Staff]

About the role

[Company name] is hiring an Executive Assistant to support [leader or office]. You will manage complex commitments, prepare meetings and decisions, coordinate travel and stakeholders, maintain confidential records, and ensure agreed actions are followed through.

What you will be responsible for

  • Manage calendar and meeting requests against priorities, preparation needs, travel, focus time, and dependencies.
  • Prepare agendas, briefs, papers, minutes, decisions, actions, correspondence, and expense records.
  • Coordinate sensitive stakeholders, travel, events, board activity, and delegated requests with discretion.

What success looks like

  • Executive time reflects agreed priorities rather than request order.
  • Meetings begin with the right people and information and end with owned actions.

Essential qualifications

  • Executive support in a complex, confidential, fast-changing environment.
  • Exceptional scheduling, written communication, prioritisation, document, and stakeholder skills.
  • Judgement to act within delegation, protect confidentiality, and escalate appropriately.

Preferred qualifications

  • Experience supporting [executive level, board, sector, geography, or public profile].
  • Exposure to board governance, projects, investor relations, events, or office-of-CEO work.

Tools and working knowledge

  • Calendar, email, video, travel, and expense systems
  • Document, board, signature, project, and secure file platforms
  • CRM, contact, note, task, and communication tools

Compensation: [Add approved range, currency, bonus, benefits, travel, overtime or availability terms, and location basis.]

[Company name] will discuss reasonable adjustments for scheduling, travel, communication, assessment, and work.

How to apply

Apply through [method] with an anonymised example of competing executive priorities you managed.

Performance expectations

What good performance looks like

Use these outcomes to replace vague activity lists with the evidence the hiring manager expects to see after the person joins.

Calendar decisions preserve preparation, travel, focus, and priority commitments.

Sensitive actions and documents have appropriate access, version, owner, and deadline control.

Hiring-manager intake

Questions to settle before advertising

Record specific answers so sourcing, screening, and interview decisions use the same definition of the role.

  1. 1

    Which leaders, boards, teams, time zones, offices, and external stakeholders are supported?

  2. 2

    What calendar, inbox, correspondence, expense, travel, meeting, and project authority is delegated?

  3. 3

    What evening, weekend, travel, event, on-site, and contactability expectation applies?

Evaluation criteria

Evidence to use in a Executive Assistant scorecard

Agree the criteria before interviews begin, then score examples against the same evidence standard.

Priority judgement
Connects requests to executive goals, dependencies, preparation, consequences, and alternatives.
Accepts requests in order or protects the calendar without understanding purpose.
Confidential execution
Controls access, facts, versions, channels, approvals, and disclosure.
Uses discretion as a reason for keeping undocumented personal systems.

Structured interview

Executive Assistant interview questions and strong signals

Ask the same core questions in the same order, then use follow-ups to understand the candidate’s individual contribution.

1

Tell me about a calendar request you declined or redesigned.

Strong answer signal

Shows context, authority, stakeholder care, alternative, and protected outcome.

2

How do you prepare an executive for a difficult meeting?

Strong answer signal

Clarifies objective, participants, history, evidence, risks, options, and follow-up.

Related titles

Check the scope behind the title

Personal Assistant — may include more personal administration and fewer business governance duties.
Chief of Staff — usually owns broader strategic coordination and organisational execution.

Common hiring mistakes

Problems to remove before publishing

Using always available without clear working hours and compensation.

Combining EA, office manager, project manager, events, HR, and personal concierge without priorities.

Continue the hiring workflow

Related roles and recruiter resources

Related job descriptions

Administrative Assistant Office Manager Project Coordinator

Helpful recruiter resources

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Master Recruitment Skills

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Source and review notes

How this template was prepared

Language
International English
Prepared by
ATZ CRM Editorial Team
Review
ATZ CRM Recruitment Editorial Review
Last reviewed
2026-08-05

O*NET: Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants

Reference for occupation tasks, knowledge, skills, abilities, and work activities.

ESCO: occupations and skills

Reference for internationally recognised occupation and skills terminology.

Qualifications, compensation, licences, working conditions, and equal-opportunity wording must be checked for the role and location before use.

Recruiter questions

Executive Assistant job description FAQs

What should an Executive Assistant job description include?

State supported leaders, calendar and inbox authority, board exposure, travel, confidentiality, projects, hours, availability, systems, and outcomes.

Should an EA be available outside working hours?

Only when genuinely required. State contactability, rota, overtime or time off, travel, and emergency boundaries.